The Lord of the Rings is a movie which in following the
book well enough,addresses many issues pertaining
to emotions, faith, hope, pity, call,confronting
evil, discernment, and many many more themes. This movie isrich to bursting with possibilities, as it follows the book which waswritten around a mythical and religious basis.
(Michael K. Doran)

Directly following the scene in which
Frankie recieves the 3rd wound of the stigmata, there is a scene where the
priest catches up with her in a public market place. They sit down in a cafe
and Frankie finds out he was/is an organic chemist and then asks why he
became a priest. He replies in a great clip, that "there were just too many
holes" and that the science he learned just couldn't explain life. He goes
on to say that he found, ultimtely, the explaination he sought could only be
found in God. (Lindsay Braman, Parsons, KS)

Toward the end of the movie, Jones meets the ancient
Knight Templar who guards the "Holy Grail", but there are many choices,
gold cups, platinum, silver, terra cotta and wood. The knight says "you
must choose, but choose wisely, for as the real grail brings eternal life,
the false grail brings death". The bad guy comes in and chooses a
glittering golden cup. "Truly the cup of a king", he says and drinks from
it. Shortly later, with several horrific transformations, he deteriorates
and turns to dust.The knight looks at them and
simply says "He choose poorly".Jones selects a
wooden cup "The cup of a Gallilean carpenter" he says, and with much fear,
having seen the results before, drinks from it. "You choose wisely" says
the knight.We've used this video with a
disclaimer about the grail superstition as a bringer of eternal life, but
in combination with the passage in Joel suggesting "choose justice, love
mercy . . . ". It's been most effective with youth groups who are familiar
with the movie. (Steve Braxton, Interim Dir.
Cong. Life, First Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, NC)

James 3:13-4:3 tackles two kinds of wisdom, God's and
the world's. Near the end of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and her friends
have brought the broomstick of the wicked witch to the wizard and ask
that he grant their requests. As he stalls for time, Toto pulls back
the curtain revealing that the magnificent wizard is nothing more than
a man who has everyone fooled. James' exposition on wisdom pulls back
the curtain on the world's wisdom and exposes it as for what it really
is, wisdom de jour based upon a consensus of people who convince
everyone else that they are right. James calls such wisdom earthly,
unspiritual, and of the devil.The flames and the image of the wizards face contrasted
by the man behind the curtain is powerful both for kids and adults.
(Larry Trotter, pastor,Martel United Methodist Church, Lenoir City, TN)